National Geographic - Titanic: Uncovering the Secrets of the Worlds Greatest Shipwreck

Titanic heads out to sea, magnificent smokestacks billowing black from the coal used to power the steamer.

(Omikron Omikron/Photo Researchers/Getty Images)

While Titanic was still in the Belfast shipyard under construction, workers lined up under one of its massive propellers for a memorable photo.

(Library of Congress, #LC-USZ62-34781)

After nearly a century on the ocean floor, thick rusticles (bacterial formations that feed on iron) encrust Titanics famous bow. The rusticles point in the direction of the current.

(Emory Kristof/National Geographic Stock)

T he year 2012 not only marks the 100th anniversary of Titanics sinking but also the 27th year of its discovery by Jean-Louis Michel and myself. A lot has happened since that historic moment during the early morning hours of September 1, 1985, some good and some bad. Salvagers would begin picking over the site and a blockbuster movie would take the world by storm. But what I found most fascinating of all about our discovery was its impact on the people most closely associated with Titanics story: the people of Belfast and the Harland & Wolff employees who built her.

When I was first doing my research in the mid-1970s on where the Titanic might have come to rest at the bottom of the ocean, I contacted the marine manufacturing company Harland & Wolff and was surprised by their lack of enthusiasm to find her. They simply did not want to talk about the sinking; it was as if it never happened. That silence continued even after our discovery of Titanic, when I traveled to Belfast during my whirlwind book tour for The Discovery of the Titanic in 1987 when Northern Ireland was experiencing what some could call a civil war. It seemed Titanic would never reenter their consciousness.

Then in 2007, I was contacted by the Duke of Abercorn, who wanted to talk to me about a major project he and others were hoping to do with the people of Belfast to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Titanics sinking on April 14 and 15 of 2012. Given their past state of denial I agreed to talk with him. For the next four years I was drawn deeper and deeper into their project, a bold plan to literally rebuild a major portion of Belfast with Titanic and the old Harland & Wolff shipyard as its centerpiece. Later in 2011, I agreed to work with National Geographic Television to create a special about my efforts to protect the Titanic from further destruction by the salvagers. When I told the producers about the Belfast project, they agreed to make it a part of their show and off we went to Belfast to document what they were doing.

That is when I learned, for the first time in my long association with the Titanic, about the Guarantee Group. Thomas Andrews, the builder of the Titanic, had always been my hero given the calm and gentlemanly way he met his death on the Titanic. Summoned to the bridge by Captain Edward Smith, he was asked to go below-decks to assess the damage. He then returned to tell the captain the ship was doomed, and he was last seen in the First Class smoking lounge sitting in a chair admiring his work, calmly going down with her to her watery grave.

It was during my most recent visit that I learned that Andrews was not the only employee of Harland & Wolff aboard Titanic that fateful night. Chosen just before the maiden voyage was to take place was an elite group of nine troubleshooters called the Guarantee Group, the best of the best that Harland & Wolff had to offer, all of whom went down with the ship along with Andrews. While in Belfast I was able to meet family members of this group, who told me that they never talked about the Titanic after she sank due to their acute sense of shame. But finally after 100 years, the people of Belfast are ready to embrace the Titanic and to once again be proud that they built her. I found within the families of the Guarantee Group kindred spirits who like me want to protect the memory of the people who sailed on that fateful voyage.

The deep sea is the largest museum of the world, and as the Titanic goes so go the many lost chapters of human history that lie undiscovered beneath the waves. If we cannot protect the Titanic, then what can we protect? Modern technology is allowing easier and easier physical access to underwater wreck sites. Do we use this access to appreciate what lies there or to plunder it?

Dr. Robert D. Ballard

having great magnitude, force, or power: COLOSSAL

Definition of titanic, Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary